fireflies

With most of our trip preparations finished, the boys took some time last night to catch some fire flies.

As soon as they spotted a 'flash', they would take off after it, you could hear their little feet running back and forth on the deck running from 'flash' to 'flash'! It reminded me of the trazillion fire flies I caught when I was a kid!

It was all so cute, except for the part where we accidentally let a fire fly go in our bedroom and he went so high that even Dale couldn't catch him!

getting ready...

so how do you prepare for a three week camping trip with a family of 7? with a family to-d0 list and a grocery shopping list and a items needed for camping list and a things to do around the house list, etc etc etc! I have about ten lists and then I have a master list of all the lists...

I lost my 'list of all the lists' today and felt as if I had just suffered complete memory lost, I was wandering in circles and blabbering about who knows what..luckily I found the master list of lists, and I was back in business, full preparation mode for, oh yeah! a three week camping trip with 5 kids!

I was able to mark things off my 'Target' list and off the 'kid's need..' list, and then I started marking stuff off the family to-do list, only to find another list that I forgot to put on the master list of lists! (at least I knew where it was!)

so, my point for posting this now is this, I will try to update occassionally with gorgeous pictures of the beautiful places we will see, but, I am not sure what type, if any, internet service we will have a long the way, and I am pretty sure that my photography skills are less than stellar so even if you get the occassional picture, it most likely will not be beautiful..but I will
put in the effort!

reflections of the beach....

What's my favorite part of our annual beach vacation? ALL of it!

The Waves...boogy boarding and swimming whenever I felt like it

The Naps.......sleeping whenever and however we wanted........

The sand.......burying the kids, burying myself, digging, getting involved in archealogical digs, and sand construction projects

Watching my kids play with cousins and have non stop fun!

goodtimes every night with family

Taking the kids to the Cape Hatteras Light house for a picnic, and climbing the lighthouse

jogging and walking to the lighthouse

There were so many more things that I love about the beach but didn't get photos of...eating dinner on the deck, the AMAZING desserts, walking to the turtle pond, exploring Blackbeard the Pirate's old stomping ground in Ocracoke, seeing the lighthouse in Ocracoke, taking the Ferry to get to Ocracoke, seeing the amazing stars every night, walking back from grandpa's ghost crab hunting expedition and seeing a far away storm light up the sky, playing games all night long, sitting in the hot tub, sitting on the beach for hours, seeing a water moccasin in his natural environment, helping a turtle cross the road, just being away from the stresses of life with my family and getting to enjoy such good times with extended family is what makes the beach memories so incredible!

Waiting for pizza...

With Dale and Shawn away at scout camp, we decided to have a pizza night! The kids have been cleaning and packing and acting like perfect angels for HOURS in anticipation of the BIG pizza dinner!

After getting maximum effort from the kids ALL day, I FINALLY took them to get pizza....

We opted to get carry out,...in what seemed like an ETERNITY to the kids, we waited for the pizza...

Melissa waiting.....

Greg Waiting.....

Alex and David waiting......

It's ready!! We bring it home and open it...

and it's gone! that was FAST!!

I almost feel guilty that they worked SO hard for such a fleeting reward... to quote a Montgomery Gentry song, "working maximun hours for minimum wage", it's character building, right??

activities surrounding the 4th....

Since we came back from New York the kids have been fascinated with tall buildings , here is a chart that they were studying....


Here is a drawing of the tallest building concieved...it is designed to be over 800 stories and 13000 feet above sea level...(thats the height of some mountains in Utah!) who knows if this thing will ever actually get built, but how cool is it???

My kids have been building their own "Twin Towers"....



On the 3rd we had several people over for swimming and taco salad (sorry, no pics!) and on the 4th we went to Dale's parents for their annual fourth of July BBQ...food and family and relaxing, there is nothing better! Even *I* was slightly taken back when I saw this picture of the Kelley family...and an announcement on Wendy's blog assures that this family is still growing!

Cousins and friends jumping on the trampoline....

right before heading to the University of Maryland for fireworks...

A mom's journey...

this morning when I was done exercising, I REALLY needed a drink of water. As I was heading up the stairs I almost tripped on a camping chair that had not been put away yet, so I picked it up and took it downstairs to be put away.

I went back upstairs again, as I was passing the table I noticed a gallon of milk on the table, I was putting it away and noticed that someone had left the lid off the salsa in the refrigerator and it tipped over, GROSS!! I went to get some paper towels to clean it up. When I went to the sink to get the paper towels wet, the dishes were piled so high that I couldn't get the paper towel under the faucet, so I started doing the dishes, then the phone rang, so I went to answer it, and the person needed some info from me which I had to go get off my computer, then I went back to the kitchen, tripping over someone's dirty clothes, so I picked up the dirty clothes to put them in the laundry room, in the laundry room I noticed that the load of clothes in the dryer was finished and I could FINALLY put away the laundry from the trip, so I took the load out and started putting it away. ...

Clean clothes smell soooooo good, oh yeah I haven't even SHOWERED yet! Into the bathroom I go, and start removing my eye makeup, the cold water felt so good on my hands, I took a drink under the faucet and then jumped in the shower....

fast forward three hours of this journey to get water, I am fussing with my computer trying to install a printer driver, so I can print the medical forms Shawn needs for his appt today,waiting and writing this while I wait, dishes still undone, refridgerator still yucky, laundry still sitting out, but I have a giant glass of ice water sitting beside me!